Sikh NHL Broadcaster Harnarayan Singh Is Living the Canadian Dream

When Harnarayan Singh stood next to the NHL commissioner for an interview in March, he wasn't sure if he would have to introduce himself. After all, this was only his third time hosting a Sportsnet broadcast. Why would Gary Bettman know who he was?

As it turned out, no introduction was needed. Bettman recognized Singh from his other job as the play-by-play voice of Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi. On Saturdays, Singh and the Hockey Night Punjabi team broadcast Canada's national sport to a growing demographic of Punjabi-speaking fans. But tonight he's hosting Hockey Night in Canada—in English—as the Boston Bruins take on the Calgary Flames. And so here he is, turban, beard, and all, conducting a television interview with one of the most powerful people in hockey.

It is, as Hockey Night Punjabi analyst Harpreet Pandher puts it, "quite the underdog story."

In 2008, Singh was a local reporter for CBC radio doubting his career path. "A few years into that role I started questioning, OK, I came into this industry to do hockey but more often I'm covering an accident, or a local news story about some business," says Singh. So he started attending real estate courses, and looked at getting a mortgage license.

Those real estate courses could have derailed a lifelong dream. Singh was raised an Oilers fan in small-town Alberta by parents who were born in the Punjab region of India. He grew up celebrating Wayne Gretzky's birthday, playing ball hockey after Sikh services, and calling play-by-play in front of the living room TV. Later, he studied broadcasting at Mount Royal University and interned with TSN in 2004.

Shortly after, in the spring of 2008, he got his first break when the CBC began a new project for the Cup Final: a Punjabi-language Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. As a fluent Punjabi speaker, CBC reporter, and hockey fanatic, Singh was the right person in the right place at the right time—so when the Detroit Red Wings took on the Pittsburgh Penguins for the 2008 Cup, Singh was calling play-by-play for Hockey Night Punjabi.

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The show began with little more than a cubicle and a camcorder, but the feedback from the Indo-Canadian community exceeded expectations immediately. "I don't think even [the CBC] imagined the response would be this big," says Singh. "The amount of viewers… they were so thrilled with it that they carried it on, and we moved to a bigger studio and a better camera set."

Since its early success, the show has faced cancellation, survived, and been cancelled again. But right now Hockey Night Punjabi is alive and more popular than ever, with a larger team, better equipment, and a broader cultural impact than anyone could have ever imagined. The show has tapped into and amplified the Indo-Canadian community's burgeoning passion for the sport. "I think what we're starting to see is that because of the show more kids are playing hockey. And so it's not going to take long for more kids in the community to make it to the WHL, OHL, and so on," says Singh.

As the show has grown, Hockey Night Punjabi's impact has reached far beyond the Indo-Canadian community. The team often gets messages from American Punjabi speakers asking their crew to call local games, and in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final they became a social media sensation after Singh lost his mind calling Pittsburgh forward Nick Bonino's third-period go-ahead goal.

The famous call went viral, media attention got bananas, and Singh was even invited to the Penguins' Cup parade in the summer to recreate the moment. "It really helped our show garner more attention, mainstream-wise, in the hockey world south of the border," says Singh.

Watching Singh and the Hockey Night Punjabi team at work, you can see the challenges inherent to their broadcast. On this Saturday, they're running through their pregame show before the Leafs take on the Blackhawks, and they are struggling with the constraints of commentating a sport entirely foreign to their language.

In mid-March, the Leafs are embroiled in a mini-controversy after getting thumped 7-2 by the Panthers earlier in the week. Several Toronto players had posted pictures of themselves fishing on Instagram the day before the game; bizarrely, some connected the loss with the fishing trip, and it became a story. Singh's crew has an obstacle to clear before they can discuss the issue: the Punjabi language has no word for 'fishing.'

Singh is seated behind the Hockey Night desk with analysts Harpreet Pandher and Randip Janda. The desk is covered with rosters, game notes, and snacks from that morning's flight. After a brief debate, they settle on using the English word—fishing—and move on.

Similar conversations have determined new Punjabi words for hockey terms like 'puck,' 'slap shot,' and 'penalty box.' They flip back and forth between languages, so I only catch snippets, like when they commented on a hot take: "MASALA—add a little!" Being around them, it's as clear as ever that they are fun, passionate, and entertaining professionals who perform their jobs well.

Hockey Night Punjabi has carved out a unique place in the hockey media landscape. That media landscape, like the NHL itself, is skewed Caucasian. Even as hockey fandom has grown more diverse, the broadcast industry continues to be dominated by white dudes. So when Singh appeared on a Sportsnet broadcast in November, he became the first Sikh to broadcast an NHL game in English.

Bhupinder Hundal, a colour commentator for Hockey Night Punjabi, speaks highly of the strides Singh has made in the media world.

"It's not like you see people like that on TV on a regular basis," says Hundal, who also wears a turban. "You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody working in English-language news, entertainment, sports… you're not going to find anybody who looks like us in those spots right now."

Singh has now appeared on six English-language NHL broadcasts. He's switching between roles and languages, working as a host in English and doing play-by-play in Punjabi. "When we're coming back from commercial, as the host you're telling people what the score is and that kind of thing," says Singh. "I'll laugh at myself that oh, whatever I'm about to say, it's coming in Punjabi, too."

As Singh often explains, his excitable play-by-play style is a product of the Hockey Night Punjabi broadcast and the culture of the Indo-Canadian community. That means we may never hear him trying to outlast the goal horn on an English broadcast. "What I've found is, it's a totally different preparation for that role [hosting] than play-by-play. Play-by-play you're so focused on the names and numbers, whereas hosting you're almost doing this investigative thing to find niche stories about specific players.

"One example is Zach Hyman from the Leafs—he writes children's books. That's fascinating!"

Kelly Hrudey, former NHL goalie and fellow Sportsnet host, has known Singh since before his Hockey Night Punjabi days, and has admired his growth as a broadcaster. "He's earned his spot [hosting on Sportsnet], and he's done a really nice job of going from a Punjabi show to an English show. He's done it seamlessly."

In past interviews, Singh has been upfront about his goal of moving to English broadcasting full-time. Today, he's non-committal.

"That was the original goal, but I didn't know back then that this [the success of Hockey Night Punjabi] would happen. I've grown to love this show and all it's done for the community and for growing the sport. Ultimately, it would be great to do something where it's cross-platform, and this season I've had some of those opportunities come."

Those sort of cross-platform appearances would seem to make Singh a target for the online harassment that plagues visible minorities and women in the media. The Hockey Night Punjabi team insists that their feedback is almost entirely positive—even in the comment sections. Nonetheless, Singh's English appearances will push him into a greater spotlight at a time when racism and harassment are seemingly on the rise.

"Growing up, I remember hearing this notion of, 'Go back to where you came from.' You used to get it a lot back in the day, and then you never heard it for a long time. But now it's come back," says Singh.

If racism and anti-immigration sentiment are rising, that only makes the Hockey Night Punjabi story even more impressive, and makes Singh's success even more vital.

"The show has value in showing that as a society, it doesn't matter what our differences are—we can make it work, and we can have fun with it," says Singh.

Singh, an unlikely face in hockey media, has become a success story who's living the Canadian dream. It took years of preparation, cross-country flights, and balancing multiple jobs. It took talent, dedication, and a little bit of right place, right time. As his colleague Hundal points out, the impact of Singh's accomplishments goes beyond his personal achievements.

"Now another up-and-comer in the community can say, 'OK, who's going to be the next one to make that jump?'"